The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
When a computing device is powered on an extensive initialization process may ensue before the computing device reaches an operable state. This initialization process may include initialization of hardware including memory, one or more processors, a number of specialized controllers, such as a memory controller, etc. Each of these pieces of hardware may be initialized through the execution of a sequence of instructions, such as firmware, stored on memory of the computing device, such as read only memory (ROM) or flash memory. This initialization process may include initializations performed in sequence, initializations performed in concert, or any combination thereof. For example, smaller computing devices, such as tablets and smart phones may perform boot tasks in concert to properly boot the platform. This sequence or concert of events, when properly executed, may cause the computing device to arrive at an operable state. If any aspect of this initialization process is carried out improperly, however, the computing device may fail to reach an operable state or may be compromised. If the improper initialization doesn't prevent the computing device from getting to an operational state, a user may have no way of knowing that the computing device initialized improperly. In addition, in the current state of the art, even if the user knows the initialization process is being carried out improperly it may be time consuming and difficult to track down exactly which part of the process is being executed improperly.